“Upstairs. Want a cookie?” she asked, licking some frosting off her thumb. “I’m baking some for Harry, but he won’t miss one.”

“Uh, sure. Thanks.” Delicious. Like all of Lily’s baking.

“How’s he doing?”

“Harry? He was fine when I left yesterday. And none of his professors cornered me to say what a little monster I turned him into either, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Sirius said with a grin.

“Funny.” She smiled. “I meant with you ending up in St. Mungo’s.”

“I think he’s all right. A little upset at first, but that was all. And he’s got good friends, from the sound of it. As long as he’s at Hogwarts, I’m not worried. At least not as much.”

“How are you doing?”

“I hadn’t seen Bellatrix in years.” He sank into a chair. “And out of the blue, she does something like this. It almost worked, Lily. Until James got there, she had me, and it was too late for me to do anything about it. Then when I got home from St. Mungo’s, I found this.”

Lily took the note from him.

I will have the allegiance of the House of Black once more. The sooner you accept that your loyalties lie with me, the sooner I will forgive all you have done against me.

“Oh my… Sirius.”

He grabbed the note and stuffed it in a pocket. “Don’t know why I haven’t pitched it,” he muttered.

“Because it scares you.”

“I gotta go see James.”

Lily looked concerned, but Sirius didn’t care. He was more worried about what he had to say to James. He had to be.

“Hey, Prongs?” Sirius let himself into the study, where James was bent over numerous documents.

“Yeah.”

“It’s Remus.”

“What? What happened? Where is he?”

“No.” His best friend wasn’t going to take this well. At all. “I’m talking about the spy.”

“Again?”

Sirius flinched at the anger in James’ voice.

“What is it with you? You hate your family for being narrow-minded, judgmental arse-hats, then you stand there and accuse your friend because he’s a werewolf. Remus is not the spy. You need to—”

“Hear me out.”

“Why should I?”

“How else would Bellatrix have known what I was doing at that pub, or that I’d be there? Looking for Harry’s mother at Muggle pubs was Remus’ idea. And you three were the only ones who knew what I was doing. Neither of us went running to the Death Eaters, and Peter practically keels over every time we talk about Voldemort or his followers. Who else could it be?”

“It took a week for Bellatrix to find you. Maybe someone was following you, and they figured it out.”

“How likely is that?”

“More likely than Remus turning on us.”

“You really believe that? Can you honestly say you think it’s more likely that Death Eaters have been staking me out for that long without anyone noticing?”

“You didn’t seem to notice you were snogging a Death Eater.”

“She knew exactly what to tell me—”

“Wasn’t hard to guess.”

“We’ve known there was a spy since we first joined the Order. Who else fits?”

James glared. Then sat. “I don’t know.”

“Remus’ idea, to look and where to look, put me right where Bellatrix wanted me. You only got me out of there by a stroke of luck.”

Slowly James nodded. “I know. I’ve been thinking that myself. I hate thinking it, but the more I do, the more sense it makes. Remus is the spy.”

Lily gasped.

Sirius’ head whipped around, and he saw Lily standing at the door. Next to Remus. A hurt and betrayed looking Remus.

“I guess I’ll go now,” he said, and left without looking back, even when Lily pleaded with him not to go like that.

She turned to Sirius and James with a glare that made Sirius feel like he was back in his fifth year, being scolded by this red-head for pranking first years.

“How could you? What on earth could possibly have you believing Remus is a spy for Voldemort? He’s your friend. You two are disgusting, absolutely disgusting!”

“Lily—”

“Save it! And you can stay with Sirius until you apologize to Remus,” Lily said, turning to James.

James wrapped his arms around her fast and tight. “No, never. I love you more than anything, Lily.”

Sirius silently crept out to the living room fireplace. James and Lily had seemed to have forgotten he was there anyways. And as he Flooed home, Sirius wished more than ever that someone was there, waiting for him. Not Harry, as much as he adored his son, but someone he loved enough to marry. He had scoffed at James for settling down so fast when they were younger, then he became so preoccupied with Harry that he had never considered a committed relationship, but now… Even after seeing James destroyed with one sentence, one sentence even Lily said was a total overreaction, Sirius wished he had that love with his own special someone. But how could he even try starting a relationship now, in the middle of a war, when he couldn’t even trust one of his oldest friends?

“Why did you choose me, Severus?” he asked, shaking in the cold as the two walked to the apparation point beyond the Dark Lord’s stronghold.

“The Dark Lord does not wish to you kill you. At least not yet. He seems to believe you will still be of use to him, though I cannot fathom why. You were chosen to prolong your miserable existence.”

“But I, I already killed those Muggles. Ten for each year I failed to bring useful information to him—”

“Yes, and nearly exposed yourself to that Muggle-fucking fool in the process, if I heard correctly.”

“Black is an idiot.”

“Aren’t you lucky,” Snape said, sneering, and disapparated.

A/N: Things will start moving a bit faster now that, I believe, I have everything set up for the story to end where I want it to. Reviews welcome, as always!